I Left My Heart (and gloves) in Florence

"Ok, so let's just go to dinner, check out the discoteca, then call it an early night. We don't want to party ourselves out too much since New Year's Eve is tomorrow night."

It was such a smart plan we had. We really did want to go the responsible route. However, Florence had other ideas for us.

We had quite a day taking snapshots of the Leaning Tower in Pisa (which, by the way, is home to where I had the best pizza ever in my life. BEST. EVER.) and we were memorized by the statue of David. Fun stuff. Good pictures.

So we went to dinner and I swear, there's something else besides alcohol in the wine there. Drunk immediately. The Blonde and I were talking about how beautiful Florence was and how much we are looking forward to spending New Year's in Rome, when the two guys next to us started to talking to us. They were trying really, really hard to speak English. I felt bad because I would just smile and nod and just there. During this time, I tried Limoncello for the first time and it was exquisite. The waiters seemed to like us, so they bought us another round of after dinner drinks. Delicious. 

 The guys sitting next to us invited The Blonde and I back to their hotel to drink some more. They said they had a magnum of wine and my ears perked up right away. We got to "hotel" which was a cross between a dorm room and a hostel and kept on the drinking. I know that the guys were trying to talk to me, but I admitted defeat with trying to learn Italian back in Milan, so I just wasn't having it. An hour into drinking that wonderful wine and talking, The Blonde and I were feeling restless. We were ready to dance!!!!

Except we didn't know where we were. I felt bad for The Blonde on the trip. Well, not too too bad, but slightly bad. I really depended on her to translate all the Italian that was going on around us. But, heey, when we were in Ireland, I "translated" for her. More on that later.

The guys that we were with ran into a big group of guys and it seemed like they were friends. The Blonde and I were over hanging out with them, so we asked one nice guy from the group where the discoteca was. He pointed us in the direction to go and we started heading off. I needed to go to the bathroom extremely badly and The Blonde just wanted to get rid of those guys, so we quickly walked into the first bar that we saw which happened to be an Irish pub. I entered into the bathroom, did my business, and when I came out saw that the guys had followed us in. Ugh...

We walked outside and started to head into the direction of the discoteca when two guys called us over. The Blonde and I gave each other one look and went over to them. They explained that there was a discoteca in the hotel and we should try it out. Excellent. We headed inside and this time, the two guys didn't follow us in. Finally, we had a break.

Not for long though. I swear, as soon as an Italian guy sees a girl, he "claims" her for the rest of the night. Enter Bad Dancer and his sidekick. We were at the bar getting a drink (like we needed another one) and they snake up to us and start trying to drag us into a conversation with them. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I get drunk I get friendly. So, I was nice to bad dancer, at first, but then I got over it. I remember him dragging me onto the dance floor and being horrified at his dancing "skills," him shoving his tongue down my throat (gag me), and them just not leaving us alone!!!!!

The Blonde and I had had enough. We said that we had to go 'cause we had to leave early the next day. As we were paying to leave, Bad Dancer and Sidekick were right behind us. Again, The Blonde and I took one look at each other and booked it! We ran into the Dublin pub and the bartender apologized that they stopped serving drinks. We said it was completely fine, we were just hiding from some sleezeballs and just needed shelter for a moment.

That's when I saw him. We locked eyes from across the bar and he was the typical Italian guy I always imagined. Dark wavy hair, glasses, cute smile, dressed so handsomely in his black coat and white scarf. I was swooning. He offered me a glass of champagne and then one to The Blonde. He introduced himself as Gianluca and then introduced the rest of his friends. One of them was Davide, who was very nice and friendly. They kept us in conversation and when we got kicked out of the bar and onto the street, we didn't even notice. The Blonde and I were relishing the attention.

"So, do you want to drink some more?," Gianluca asked.

I gave him a curious look and asked where. I was not about to go to anyone's house or anything like that again.

"My family owns a restaurant two stores down. Come have a drink."

So we did. The Blonde and I were surround by four Italian guys that gave us wine and feed us biscotti. Feed us!

There was a lot of dancing (including some on a table) and lots of laughing. It was a once in a lifetime experience to just hang out at an Italian restaurant in Italy just talking and laughing and dancing the night away.

Two of the guys left and Gianluca and I were dancing. He looked at me and said, "I like you." I couldn't help but beam. He kissed me then. The butterflies were back!

We spent the rest of the night kissing and talking. He actually whispered sweet nothings to me in Italian! He talked a little of his background and mentioned that he wants to move to America (uh-huh) and asked if I would be his girlfriend when he moved there (oh sure). I didn't believe half the stuff he said, but it was just fun to hear.

The Blonde was, um... occupied with one of his friends and it was getting to that point where she needed to go before something "bad" happened. We left, but Gianluca and I exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. The Blonde and I got back to our hotel at 7am. I passed out in my clothes. What a sign of an awesome night.

P.S.- Gianluca and I have kept in contact quite a bit. I'll keep everyone updated if he actually moves here. Ha!